Chapter Eighteen - The Forest

People sometimes offered up the opinion, unasked, that you were never so lonely as when in a crowded room. Nell was finding out the hard way how wrong that was. Being alone and quite lost in the deepening twilight was frightening and she was worried about the Alpha and feeling guilty for not raising the alarm. What if he’d been having a heart attack?

She could imagine Deborah’s take on that. Stupid mutt should have appointed a new doc soonest.

Nell had to smile. While the sentiment might have belonged to Mrs Marchant, the phrasing of it was pure Oakley, even if she had borrowed the insult.

The packhouse was mostly warm, especially the nursery, and she shivered without either cardigan or coat. Maybe she could find a hollow tree and squeeze herself into the gap in its bole. A covering of leaves would be nice. So what if she dirtied her dress. It wasn’t one she had chosen. Had a she-wolf left it behind?

Not wanting to examine that idea too closely, she trudged on, discovering she was